JPH08137776A - Portable device for accessing electronic document or distributing electronic document - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To speedily transfer data from a fixed or moving device to the other device by permitting plural objects to communicate with a user interface and to receive, store and transmit document reference corresponding to one of electronic documents. CONSTITUTION: Multiple work stations 30, 32 and 34, printers 36 and 38, a facsimile equipment 40 and a file server 42 communicate with the user interface by using IR transmitter/receivers 44, 46, 48 and 50. They access to the database of the electronic document having corresponding document reference and the IR transmitter/receivers 44, 46, 48 and 50 receive, store or transmit document reference corresponding to one of the electronic document. Thus, transfer from the fixed or moving device to the other device can considerably speedily be executed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to accessing and distributing data, and more particularly to electronic computing between portable computing devices and between portable computing devices and various forms of office equipment. A device for transferring a document.

[0002]

The role that electronic documents play in our lives is increasing. In fact, many, if not most, documents are being created electronically today, and we store, retrieve, copy, print, and more electronic documents than paper documents.
I think it's easy to update and distribute.

For desk-bound document-intensive workers, this is exactly the situation. However, for those who are required to move more for work, existing technology does not provide much support for the above work. For mobile workers, electronic documents are very inconvenient to locate, retrieve, and distribute, and their activity appears to be the dominant document-centric activity outside the office. Being away from offices or workstations (eg, for meetings) does not allow workers to access all or most of the electronic documents, so be careful even if you may not actually need them for meetings. Because of this, I often go out with a lot of paper documents.

There are many cases where paper documents are clearly the most effective medium for exchanging information. Sometimes, we believe that the intended recipient does not need the information right now, but may need it in the future. In this case,
It may be preferable to exchange documents electronically. Nonetheless, they carry paper documents (probably after first stopping at a copier or printer and printing the documents) back to the office or home, creating a pile of paper documents.

Although many documents are electronically generated, relatively few are distributed electronically. For example, if someone (sender) is currently speaking (receiver)
If you are trying to provide an electronic document to a recipient, the procedure is basically to stop the conversation, go to the workstation, search for the document you want to hand over, find the recipient's electronic address, and Then, after looking at how best to encode the data, ask the sender that the document must be transferred. Compared to simply handing out a paper document, this procedure is tedious, time consuming, and unreliable. Moreover, the sender or recipient cannot immediately see if the document was successfully transferred between them. To confirm, the recipient needs to go to his workstation to find the document, and to inform the sender clearly that the document has been received.

Another problem arises when a person decides to hand a paper copy to a recipient. If he does not have a paper copy to hand over, he will often print a document later and promise to hand it over after the meeting to avoid confusion. But he may forget the work to do easily. If he decides to print the document on the spot, he stops the conversation, finds an electronic document, finds a printer that isn't in use, sends the document to that printer, and remembers to go there when printing is finished. You have to go and take it out. However, many people forget to retrieve the printer output. If the confidential document is printed on a shared (network) printer, the sender must be there to collect the confidential document immediately.

Yet another problem exists for workers who do not have access to workstations or networks. For committee members, long trips to attend important conferences are now commonplace. For example, the Standards Committee invites experts from all over the world, and participants try to attend the Committee with all the information they may need to provide to colleagues, answer questions, or make decisions. . The committee meets each time in one of several different places. For example, the European Parliament moves regularly between Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasburg. It may be impossible for attendees to anticipate the need for a document, and it may not be possible to carry a printed copy of everything. And if you need a lost document in a hurry, you can handle it by accessing the electronic document, printing it, or calling someone in the office to fax it to the meeting. Is. At best, this disrupts the flow of the conference and there is also the risk that the document will eventually be unavailable.

It is known to transfer electronic documents from one portable computer to another portable computer during a conference using infrared (IR) communication. However, compared to existing electronic communication devices, I
The R data transfer rate is very slow, and to send a simple electronic document from one to the other requires the users to stand within a few feet of each other and point the IR transmitters of the portable computer at each other for a few minutes.

Yet another problem is the inability to store a large number of electronic documents in a handheld or wristwatch handheld computer (eg, Apple's Newton®). This is the case for documents in PostScript, for example, but may be more of a problem for scanned (bitmapped) documents.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a system for accessing or distributing electronic documents.
The system uses electronic documents and corresponding document references (docu
It consists of a database of ment references and multiple objects. At least one of the objects is portable or mobile. Each object comprises means for communicating with each other and with the user interface, and means for receiving, storing or transmitting a document reference corresponding to one of said electronic documents.

The present invention further provides a portable device for accessing or distributing electronic documents. The device comprises means for communicating with a fixed or mobile electronic device and means for receiving, storing or transmitting a document reference corresponding to one of said electronic documents. And, at least one of the electronic devices has a database of electronic documents and corresponding document references.

The present invention further provides an apparatus for scanning, copying or printing a document. This device
A means for accessing a database of electronic documents, each having a corresponding document reference;
It comprises means for communicating with one or more things and with a user interface and means for receiving, storing or transmitting a document product corresponding to one of said electronic documents. At least one of the objects is portable or mobile.

Although each document reference corresponds to one electronic document, a document may have multiple corresponding document references (eg, from different users). For very small electronic documents, the document reference may include the electronic document itself. However, the document reference is the Worldwide Web Informatio
n system (see Berners-Lee TJ, Cailliau R., & Grof
f JF, The Worldwide Web, Computer Networks and IS
It appropriately contains the Universal Resource Locator (URL) defined in DN System 25 (1992), pp.454-459. North-Holland).

Each electronic document or document reference has a corresponding user interface (UI) display. The UI representation of the electronic document may specifically include an icon or text on a graphic display, voice, any combination thereof, or broadly any real or fleeting object that can be selected using a user interface. . The UI command language may be a text-based language, a menu-based language, or a natural language, or a direct dialog (as in the embodiments described herein), or any other suitable method (Preece J. , Huma
n Computer Interaction (1994). Addison Wesley).

Alternatively, in accordance with the present invention, each document reference in an electronic document can be invalidated, or eliminated (eg, by erasing). Although the electronic document remains in the database, it cannot be accessed remotely using the document reference / document satchel method described below.

The present invention is particularly advantageous because the document token occupies a relatively small amount of storage space in memory and can be transferred from one (fixed or mobile) device to another very quickly. .

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0018]

The present invention is based on the PARC Tab technology. The system hardware is (1) Adams N., Gold.
R., Schilit BN, Tso M. & Want R., (1993), An Infr
aredNetwork for Mobile Computers, in Proc. USENIX
Symposium on Mobile & Location-independent Computi
ng, pp.41-52, Cambridge, MA: USENIX; and (2) Sch
ilit BN, Adams N., Gold R., Tso M. & Want R., (199
3), The PARCTab Mobile Computing System, in Proc.
4th Workshop on Workstation Operating Systems (WWO
S-IV), pp.34-39, Napa, CA: IEEE.

A Tab is a form of personal digital assistant (PDA), a small and lightweight portable computer that can be worn on a belt or in a handbag. Although the invention is described in detail below with respect to the use of such tabs, it is understood that any suitable form of portable computer may be used, and that the computer may take the form of, for example, a conventional wristwatch subject to design constraints. Will

As shown in FIG. 1, the tab 2 is provided with a touch-sensitive small bitmap screen 4, which the user can input with a fingertip or a pointer 6. The tab 2 further comprises a 19.2 Kb / s two-way IR communication facility (diode transmitter / receiver) 8 and three buttons 10. Alternatively, it will be appreciated that any suitable radio technology known in the art may be used to implement wireless communication (eg, Weiser M., The Computer for the 21.
st Century, Scientific American, September 1991, p
p.66-75). As a further alternative, any of the communication links cited herein (provided by an IR link) may be embodied by a wired link, if appropriate. The tab 2 further comprises a tone generator 12 for use, for example, via the public telephone network. The user can carry the tabs 2 from room to room within the building, while maintaining contact with a network of stationary servers that provide a variety of services. As is well known in the art, as part of the tab's user interface, screen 4 displays various icons 14 that provide the user with access to various services (Smith et al.
al., Designing the StarUser Interface, Byte 7 (4) (19
82), pp.242-282).

The present invention is embodied by using a user interface (eg, on each tab, and elsewhere), where the tab emulates a document satchel. A satchel display is a display of portable paper scissors of a document that can carry the document to a remote location for later use, distribution, etc. In the following description, electronic documents are said to be stored in the satchel, but a feature of the invention is that the document reference identifying the electronic document is received, stored, and transmitted by the tab. In the following description, the document reference takes the form of an electronic token that uniquely corresponds to the document. The document itself can be stored on a file server or a network user personal workstation. In certain cases (eg, if the document is very small), the electronic token may include the document itself. Table 1 shows a typical database of stored documents and their respective tokens.
Shown in The tongue is shown as an 8-bit code for purposes of illustration, but it will be appreciated that it may have any suitable format to suit the desired application. In any event, the token contains sufficient information for the system to locate the relevant document, as in the URLs above.

[0022]

[Table 1] ─────────────────────────────────── Document token attribute value ─────── ──────────────────────────── 5000 Series Machine Specifications 01011010 at Kitchen 5045 Maintenance Manual 01101001 at Jane's Of Wireless Network 00101011 at Kitchen. ........ ...... at Jane's Of ODP sales pie charts 00010111 Usability Busy 5053 Production Schedule 01011110 Temperature 22 ℃ ───────────────── ────────────────── (Examples of typical documents and tokens in a database)

As an alternative, the user interface is
It can be completely or partially removed from a personal digital assistant (PDA). In that case, P
The DA is designed to duplicate the appropriate user interface when communicating with, for example, a suitable device with a display (eg, workstation, printer, copier, fax, etc.). . In that case, the person receiving the electronic document sent to his PDA cannot immediately determine what the document is, but the tone generator sends and / or sends the document.
The PDA can be programmed to generate a "beep" indicating reception.

To show the contents of the user's satchel,
FIG. 2 shows the user interface and icons on the display of the user's workstation used in one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 shows the user interface and icons on the display of the user's portable device. It will be appreciated that any method of transferring a document from an electronic desktop via any user interface, any icon, and / or IR link may be used.

The electronic document can be placed in the user's satchel using the user's personal workstation (eg, Macintosh). Satchel owners have a special small folder icon 16 on their electronic desktop (Fig. 2) called a satchel folder, which distinguishes it from other icons on the desktop. It preferably has an icon. The Satchel folder behaves just like any other folder. The open satchel folder 18 contains the user's name and a list of items in the satchel. As compared to other folders, the exception is that any document 20 that has been pulled into the folder by the user (eg by moving the pointer 19 with a normal mouse) will automatically be transferred by the data transfer operation (eg by IR communication). (Between the workstation and the user's tab), resulting in the document icon 22 appearing in the satchel display 24 on tab 2. The information transmitted over the IR link includes the icon type, document name, and corresponding token. The tokens are stored in the Satchel (Tab) memory. It will be appreciated that the data transfer operation described above can be implemented in many other ways (eg, by simply typing a command on the keyboard).

Satchel's user interface is
It is embodied in such a way that the contents of the satchel are displayed on the screen as a series of one-line entries (Fig. 3). Each line corresponds to a document token and contains a small icon and document name. The user can scroll up or down the screen by pressing the appropriate arrow 28 on the scroll bar 26 at the right edge of the display (eg, with a pen) until the desired entry is found.

In a similar manner, if the tab is within range of the IR transceiver, any document visible on the tab's satchel screen 24 will automatically appear in the satchel folder 18 on the user's desktop, Data on the contents of the relevant satchel can be downloaded to the works. From there, you can open the document in the Satchel folder and edit it on the fly,
Or you can pull the document from the Satchel folder onto your desktop.

Since Satchel (Tab) uses an IR wireless communication system, it is easy to find other IR-linked devices that are in its line of sight. The PARC Tab network disclosed in the documents (1) & (2) includes an IR gateway (one for each room) that connects the satchel to the cable network service. However, any suitable search technique can be used to determine where Satchel is. Therefore,
Each satchel is context sensitive. That is, each satchel knows which room it is in at any given moment, and which other satchel or IR-linked device (eg, printer) is there with it.

Each satchel (tab) provides this contextual information to the user. It takes the form of an additional entry on the Satchel screen. These entries are not entered by the user, but pop up automatically when the user holds the satchel and moves around the building. For example, when Mike encounters Richard, an entry representing Richard appears on Mike's Satchel screen, and a corresponding entry representing Mike appears on Richard's Satchel screen. Similarly, when Mike is in the same room as the printer, his satchel screen has an entry (icon 2
5 + name) appears (see Figure 3). These pop-up entries provide the user with a simple way to pass documents to each other or to exchange documents with nearby devices.

FIG. 4 illustrates a networked system embodying the present invention and a sequential method for distributing documents using the document satchel. Connected to a normal network (for example, Ethernet) are many electronic devices such as workstations 30, 32, 36, printers 36,
38, a fax 40, and a file server 42. These devices are commonly referred to as "objects." For purposes of explanation, a portion of a network connecting four rooms is shown. For example, the rooms 1A and 1B may be in the first building, and the rooms 2A and 2B may be in the second building apart from the first building.

In each room 1A-2B, at least one IR transceiver 44, 46, 48, 50 is used to communicate between all tabs in the room and the network (previously described). (See Schilit et al. References)
. Alternatively, any of the objects 30-42 may have its own IR transceiver for communicating with the tab. In this way, in room 1A, workstation 30
There is a printer 36 and a transceiver 44, and in room 2B,
There is a file server 42, a printer 38 and a transceiver 50.

Further distribution of the document by showing in FIG. 4 the tab positions of two people (Mike and Richard) and the actions taken before and after they met in one room. Clarify the procedure. FIG. 5 shows the display on the tabs of Mike and Richard at times t _{1 to} t ₇ in the procedure of FIG.

At time t ₁ , Mike is in room 1A (his office) and Richard is in room 2A. Figure 5
As Mike Satchel shows in the electronic document “Ag
enda ”(the icon) (so its token is stored in its memory) and his printer (“ Penguin
36) icon. The printer 36 icon will automatically appear because the printer 36 is placed in room 1A. Then, at time t ₂ , Mike and Richard are in room 1B. Meet in. Pengui
n The printer automatically disappears from his satchel view, Richard Satchel's icon appears on Mike's Satchel, and Mike's Satchel's icon appears on Richard's Satchel. In addition, the fax 40 icon will automatically appear on both satchels.

At time t ₃ , the microphone reads the electronic document "Ag
decides to give Richard a copy of "enda" (if Mike doesn't have the document he wants to pass in his satchel, Mike is in British Patent Application No. 931544).
As disclosed in No. 8.2, he can use a memory aid and an information retrieval device on his tab to find the document he wants to hand over and retrieve its token). To pass a copy of the electronic document "Agenda" to Richard, Mike simply uses a pen or the like to select the document icon on the touch screen of the tab and copy that icon over Richard's satchel icon. This starts the procedure and sends an "Agenda" digital token (see Table 1) from Mike's tab to Richard's tab over the IR link (the time it takes depends on the communication protocol used, the security encryption). Depending on usage and token size, in any event it is probably a fraction of the time it takes to transfer an entire document over the same link, very short, typically 1
A fraction of a second). As a result, the "Agenda" token is stored in Richard's tab for later distribution or use. When this operation is completed (t ₄ ), “Ag
The "enda" icon also appears on Richard's tab screen, with the "Agenda" icon in his personal satchel.

Next (t ₅ ), the microphone returns to room 1A,
His satchel display reverts to the display that existed at time t ₁ . At the same time, Richard also returns to room 2A. Mike's Satchel icon and Fax 1B icon automatically disappear from Richard's tab screen, leaving his only item, the document "Agenda", in his Satchel (Figure 5).
Richard wants to print the document "Agenda" at this time, but he does not have a printer in the office. So, at time t ₆ , he walks to room 2B in the same building where the printer 38 called "Picador" is located.
to go into. As a result of the IR communication and the above-mentioned object detection procedure, the icon of "Picador" automatically appears as an entry on Richard's tab screen.

To print the document "Agenda", Richard at time t ₇ simply moves a copy of the "Agenda" icon over the "Picador" icon. As a result, an IR signal is sent from the Richard tab to the transceiver 50 or the IR transceiver of the printer "Picador" itself. This IR signal contains an "Agenda" digital token. Use this token to read the electronic document “Ag
enda ”is a database (eg file server 4
2) or accessed from Mike's workstation 30 and then printed by the printer "Picador".

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of processing executed in each tab when the object connected to another tab or IR is encountered. In step S1, the tab simultaneously communicates with the surroundings, i.e., the tab user identification code begins to communicate simultaneously. (This code is a shared key technique known in the art.
ogy) can be used for encryption. ) Next, the software checks in step S2 for legal (correct) user input (in this example, the user uses the touch screen to copy the document icon to another satchel or other object). If the input is legal as described above, the document token is transmitted by IR to the recipient in step S3, and the process proceeds to step S1.
Return to. (Transmission of the token can include encryption using a public key technique known in the art, that is, whatever is encrypted with the user's private key, the public key corresponding to that private key. Can be deciphered using.)

If it is not a legal input as described above, the software checks in step S4 whether it has received any IR signal (eg, satchel or printer ID, or document token). If not, the process returns to step S1.

If an IR signal is received, the software checks in step S5 if it is an ID (eg another satchel). If the signal is the ID, the received ID (that is, the satchel icon + the name of the satchel user) is displayed on the tab screen in step S6. (Similarly,
This ID code may need to be decrypted using shared key techniques known in the art. ) Next, the process returns to step S1.

If the signal is not an ID, the software checks in step S7 if the received IR signal is a document token. If the received IR signal is not a document token, there is a system error. This is shown on the tab screen. If the IR signal is a document token, the token (ie icon + document name) is displayed on the tab screen in step S8. (Similarly, this ID code may need to be decrypted using a shared key technique known in the art.) Processing then returns to step S1.

FIGS. 7-13 illustrate various ways of distributing a document that can be implemented using the present invention.
7-13, item 60 is a multi-function with a tab, a base station in the room, and IR communication equipment to wirelessly communicate with other objects within range of the IR transceiver at a fixed time. Is a machine. The machine 60 is further hooked up to the network to facilitate high speed transfer of electronic documents between itself and many other like machines 60 or other objects on the network (FIG. 4). Machine 60 may comprise, for example, any combination of scanning, copying, faxing, and printing functions as are known in the art.

As can be seen from FIG. 7, document A is first scanned by the multifunction machine and its corresponding token is I.
Sent by R to Ann's tab, and the associated icon entry appears in her satchel. After a certain time (
For example, when document A is unavailable) Anne sends the token to machine 60 (via the icon drag process described with respect to FIGS. 4 and 5) and machine 60 prints document A automatically.

In FIG. 8, Document A was created in the user's normal workstation 62. The user then sends the electronic document to the multi-function machine 60, which sends the corresponding token by IR to Ann's tab.

In FIG. 9, two multi-function machines 60, 6
0'is connected by a network. First machine 60
The document A is scanned in and the machine 60 interprets the token in FIG.
Send to Anne's tab as shown in. After some time (eg, at a remote location), Ann decides to get a hard copy of the document. She simply sends the token to a nearby machine 60 '(as described in Figure 7). The machine 60 'accordingly retrieves the electronic document A from the machine 60 or the relevant file server via the network and then prints the document A.

FIG. 10 similarly shows distribution and printing of document A. The process is the same as that of FIG. 9 except that the token is sent from Anne to Bob and then document A is printed on the second machine 60 '.

FIG. 11 illustrates the case where the tab owner is not near the multifunction machine. Here, the machine is a telephone network 64
It is connected to the fax 66 via. Document A is scanned by machine 60 and stored electronically in a database. Anne then accesses the fax 66 at the location where a hard copy of document A is needed.
Using fax 66, Anne calls the multifunction machine. When access is gained, she manipulates the tab to send an audio signal representing the token of document A to the phone and instruct machine 60 to transmit document A to fax 66. The machine 60 quickly accesses the electronic document A and sends it over the telephone line to the fax 66, where the fax 6
6 prints it.

In the operation shown in FIG. 12, the fax 66 'has an IR transceiver 68 built therein. In this case, the token of the document A is IR to the transceiver 68 from the Ann tab.
The operation is the same as in FIG. 11, except that it is sent to the multifunction machine 60 from the fax 66 'and then electronically.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 13 uses radio paging technology. Bob wears a radio pager, or a tab that emulates a radio pager, and when he is away from his office, contacts Anne to inform him that he needs a copy of document A. Ann is a multi-function machine 60
Scans document A, then pager network 7
Token of document A through 0 Bob's paper (tab)
Command the machine 60 to transmit. Bob can then go to any printer, fax, etc. configured to receive the token and print a copy of document A.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a portable device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of the user interface and icons used in one embodiment of the present invention on the display of the user's workstation.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a user interface and icons used in one embodiment of the present invention on a display of a user's portable device.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a network system for implementing the present invention.

5 is a diagram showing a display of the portable device of each user corresponding to the order of FIG. 4; FIG.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a process performed in a portable device when exchanging document tokens.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a first method of distributing a document that can be implemented using the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a second method of distributing a document that can be implemented using the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing a third method of distributing a document that can be implemented using the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing a fourth method of distributing a document that can be implemented using the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing a fifth method of distributing a document that can be implemented using the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram showing a sixth method of distributing a document that can be implemented using the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram illustrating a seventh method of distributing a document that can be implemented using the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 tabs 4 small bitmap screen 6 pointer 8 two-way IR communication equipment 10 button 12 tone generator 16 special small folder icon 18 satchel window 20 document 22 document icon 24 satchel display 25 printer icon 26 scroll bar 28 scroll bar Arrows 30, 32, 34 Workstation 36, 38 Printer 40 Fax 42 File server 44, 46, 48, 50 IR transceiver 60, 60 'Fax 62 Normal workstation 64 Telephone line 66, 66' Fax 68 IR Transceiver 70 Pager Network

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location G06F 17/21 H04Q 7/06 7/08 7/12 H04L 12/54 12/58 H04M 11/00 302 9466-5K H04L 11/20 101 B

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A system for accessing or distributing electronic documents, comprising a database of electronic documents and corresponding document references, and a plurality of objects, at least one of said objects being portable. Formula and mobile, each of said objects comprising means for communicating with each other and a user interface, and means for receiving, storing or transmitting a document reference corresponding to one of said electronic documents. The system is characterized by: 2. A portable device for accessing or distributing electronic documents, comprising means for communicating with a fixed or movable electronic device and a user interface, at least one of said electronic devices being an electronic document and its corresponding It has a database of document references to
Means for receiving, storing or transmitting a document reference corresponding to one of said electronic documents. 3. In a device for scanning, copying or printing documents, a means for accessing a database of electronic documents having corresponding document references, and a plurality of objects, at least one of which is portable or mobile. Apparatus for communicating with one or more of the above and a user interface, and means for receiving, storing or transmitting a document reference corresponding to one of the electronic documents. .